Ambassador to Philippines Confirmed

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, February 3, 2002

The Senate confirmed Francis Ricciardone on Monday as ambassador to the Philippines.

Kansas lawmakers had pressed for months to confirm the ambassador, saying the post is critical because two Americans are held hostage in the Philippines by terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

A 660-strong contingent of U.S. troops is in the southern Philippines advising that country's army in its battle against the Abu Sayyaf group on several southern islands. Kansas missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipino nurse Deborah Yap are held captive on one of them, Basilan.

"Now the Burnhams will have a strong advocate, officially installed in the Philippines, working on their behalf to free them," Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said after the Senate acted.

A career diplomat, Ricciardone has been in recent years the State Department's special coordinator for transition in Iraq.